Who can say

Why we give up on things

Women never make me feel good.

It’s always the Writing…

I am tortured in the streets of dawn.

I am put to sleep

by my own lullaby.

Who can say

Why we give up on things

She laughs at my pain

I don’t want to become

all the things

she thinks I am.

I don’t want to be a survivor

and yet,

I keep surviving…

If I have any weakness

inside myself

I want to defeat that.

I am convinced that I am stronger

than her—

far bigger

than people see me.

Who can say

Why we don’t give up on things

When they haven’t loved us back

or given us, anything, in return.

Perhaps, the things I haven’t given up on

are the things

I find inside myself.

Maybe,

that is the only treasure

I will ever know—

The only respect, I have—self-respect.

And the guillotine workcamps

And the angry girls

And the old and dying

grab for what belongs to them.

Nobody knows

Why they don’t give up on things…

But I know.

All of the things that give up on me

weren’t strong enough

to hold onto me

because

where I am going

they cannot follow.

That’s why things give up on me

and that’s why

I

Won’t give up

on myself.